Part of an ongoing series of Gazette stories celebrating researchers who received support as part of a major investment by the federal government in science and research on May 29.
Dr. Lorna Ferguson is taking a close look at how occupational stress effects the ability of police officers to conduct searches for lost and missing people in Canada.
She is also investigating ways to alleviate the impacts of on-the-job stress on police officers, as well as search and rescue volunteers with specialized skills.
Her PhD focused on what search and rescue work is — the police activities, the processes, what they do, how they do it, the tools and technologies. She also focused on the stories of missing people.
She says her research uncovered “a huge gap” in the scholarship: the nature of the events themselves impacts police officers’ ability to do search and rescue work.
“It causes occupational stress for police,” said Dr. Ferguson. “The stress experiences and their impacts can affect the effectiveness of their ability to find missing people, and stress has ripple effects. Over time, it can affect police officers’ perceptions, behaviours and decision-making during search and rescue operations.”
Banting fellowship
To conduct this additional research, she was awarded a two-year Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship valued at $70,000 annually.
Dr. Ferguson also received a post-doctoral research grant of $20,000 over two years. It is jointly funded by Memorial’s Office of the Vice-president (Research) and the School of Graduate Studies.
She is working with Dr. Rose Ricciardelli, Research Chair in Safety, Security and Wellness at the Marine Institute.
“There is a huge amount of stress that police are experiencing . . . and it’s having impacts on their ability to do their job, their ability to find missing people.”
Based at the School of Maritime Studies, the chair leads research in mental health, wellness and industry-focused gender issues in the marine transportation, emergency response and public safety sectors.
Dr. Ferguson holds a PhD in sociology from Western University in London, Ont.
There, she received a 2021-22 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for her doctoral research on police responses to missing persons.
She also founded the Missing Persons Research Hub, a national information and research hub for the field of missing persons.
‘We’re not hearing about this’
In Canada, police have the primary responsibility for co-ordinating and conducting searches for people who are reported missing.
These searches range from a missing toddler or elderly person with dementia to search and rescue activities for a missing fisherman or lost hiker.
Dr. Ferguson says it is high-pressure, demanding work that can place physical, emotional and psychological stress on police officers.
The impact of this stress can, in turn, affect their ability to locate missing people.
“There is a huge amount of stress that police are experiencing and we’re not hearing about this and it’s having impacts on their ability to do their job, their ability to find missing people.”
Dr. Ferguson started her post-doctoral research this fall by examining the experiences of police search and rescue personnel.
Her goal is to find ways to reduce the effects of work-related stress on their health and well-being — and find ways to improve police search and rescue response training and job performance.
“How can we better support search and rescue personnel and what do they need in terms of organizational supports? Is it something as simple as building staff rotations into search and rescue operations, for example? The hope is that we can begin to talk about solutions and strategies.”
